Haliburton Pool Initiative

04Nov

As many of you might already know there has been lots of discussion regarding the building of an indoor pool in Haliburton. We have over 600+ pristine lakes but we don’t have an indoor pool. As a mom with young children I feel that it is a life skill for my children to learn how to swim and swim well particularly because we live in an area with over 600 lakes. As such, I’ve committed myself to driving them for a minimum of 2 hours to attend a 30 minute swim lesson several times in a year and I now that I’m not the only mom who does so

What about swimming in the lakes you might ask? Well, that’s great for about 2 months in the year but unfortunately, it is not a year round option. What about the local resorts? Pine Stone does offer a swim membership so that local residents can use their pool however, they do not offer public swim lessons and the membership times are restricted so in my circumstance that’s also not ideal.

If this is a topic that you are interested in learning more about I’m going to post the email that I received earlier today regarding this topic and where the current initiative stands. The below email mentions an attachment that you can open to send in a donation to support this initiative. This document is not attached to this blog but can be found at the pool website;http://www.ourpool.ca.

As you can see, we have made great strides in our effort to raise $35,000 for a Market Demand Feasibility Study. This is the first major step in achieving our goal of seeing this county build a recreation facility with an indoor swimming pool, and having the YMCA involved. To date we have raised about 60% of the required $35,000. If you have already contributed, please accept our sincere thanks. But if not, will you help us achieve the remaining 40% with your contribution using the attached donor form? Also, have a look around Haliburton and Minden, where our new cookbook, “Recipes with a Splash”, is available in various stores for $12 each.

Why do we need to raise $35,000?

For any organization or government to consider supporting such a large-scale community project, they must have positive results from a Market Demand Feasibility Study. This study will include approximately 4000 phone calls to County residents, to determine if:

There is enough community support for a pool;

The community is willing to pay the user fees needed to operate a facility successfully.

Information will be collected from a selection of residents who represent the diverse demographics of Haliburton County. This information will then be presented in a format that will give us and our potential partners a clear statement regarding the viability of a public pool and recreation facility. Our goal is to have the Market Demand Feasibility Study completed by September, 2012. Assuming positive results from this study, our next steps will be to generate a Business Plan allowing us to secure support and funding for the building of our facility.

We each have our unique reasons and needs for a pool and recreation centre in Haliburton County, including our personal health and well-being, for those of our families, and for the health and growth of our community. Your contribution to this study will be an affirmation of your commitment to meeting these needs and to investing in our futures. We hope you will complete the attached donor form and send it in with your donation as soon as possible. We also invite you to e-mail or deliver this letter to your neighbours, families and friends who may also want to support this worthy community initiative. Thank you for your contribution and continued support, and please visit our website at www.ourpool.ca.